#cavedivemexico

June 5, 2016 Cenote Xulo to Caterpillar:

The day dawned hotter than usual with the humidity somewhere around the sweat bath stage. I kept my water bottle nearby as I donned my dry suit. Getting into our gear–the dry suits and the harnesses–is a miserable business in this heat. So both of us hurry to immerse ourselves into the cool water of the Cenote. I swear you can see steam rising off our heads as we sink into the water and don our tanks.

Once situated we face each other and brief the dive. We are each carrying one extra tank in order to extend our range. We will move along the mainline of the cave system for fifteen minutes to a junction called a jump. At the junction we turn left and cross a gap to a new line that will take us to a restriction (a small opening that requires special techniques to pass through) that separates the Xulo system from the Caterpillar system.

With the briefing completed we descend into the Xulo system and begin swimming along the line through crystalline water along a route that is up and down with narrow doorways from one section to the next. There are massive stalactites and other surreal formations that were made in another era, another time before humans populated the Americas. Hell, maybe even before we walked out of Africa.

At the third junction I confirmed our turning point by carefully reading the notation written in black ink on the arrows: Caterpillar. Zsolt and I make eye contact and use hand signals to agree that we are at the right jump. We mark the junction with a cookie and use a reel to connect the main line of Xulo to the Caterpillar line and begin swimming through small passages that twist and turn with periodic restrictions that require us to slow down, extend the fins, and pull ourselves along the floor of the cave so as to protect the formations that are attached to the ceiling.

Soon we have used a third of our gas supply and drop our stages twenty-nine minutes into the dive. Now I feel much more maneuverable as we fin toward our object but I am surprised when we arrive at an unmarked T so soon. Our line is tied off perpendicular to the opposing line and is not the continuous line. I recall from a conversation earlier in the day with another diver that they turned right at this junction. With this in mind I mark our line with a cookie and an arrow so that there is no way to mistake which way to go on the return trip and turn right, swim up the new line.

Within a few minutes I can see a green arrow–it’s a weird irregular shape-and we arrive at a vertical restriction. Now I need to say that this was the second time I was surprised on this dive based on the research that Zsolt and I did before the dive. The main thing is that I expected a much longer swim to the restriction that separates Xulo from Caterpillar than the forty minutes (from Xulo entrance) it took us to arrive at the green arrow.

Secondly, when I stuck my head in the hole I saw what turned out to be fifteen feet of gnarly restriction to the final opening on the other end. The worst thing was the number of sharp stalactites hanging like teeth that extended down close to the floor. I was under the impression that the restriction was small hole–not a fifteen foot tunnel filled with needle teeth.

I released my right tank and pushed past the vertical slot into the tooth filled maw and slithered as best I could under the teeth. I could see a lot of previously broken stalactites on the floor and tried to press myself into a crevice that paralleled the direction I needed to go. Turning my head up, the tooth-like tips of the stalactites were within kissing distance of my face plate and I chose to retreat in order to preserve the cave.

I can’t be sure we were at the correct restriction because at least one written account makes it sound like the restriction is abbreviated–you could ‘shakes hands with a person on the other side.’ And while I think there is a point on the far end of the tooth tunnel where this might be true it didn’t seem this way to me given the length of the passage (which was at least fifteen feet).